Policy advisory styles in the francophone Belgian civil service

Aubin, David; Brans, Marleen

doi:10.1177/0020852318785025

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Advice of civil society and academics is much less frequently mentioned. This reliance on internal, in-house advice is consistent with previous research on Belgian civil servants (Aubin and Brans, 2020).…”

Section: A High Utilization Conditioned By Advice Characteristicssupporting

confidence: 89%

Policy advice utilization in Belgian ministerial cabinets: the contingent importance of internal and external sources of advice

Squevin

Aubin

2022

International Review of Administrative Sciences

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Ministerial cabinets hold a central place in the Belgian politico-administrative system, carrying out the bulk of policy formulation. However, they do not operate in isolation and rely on other actors of the policy advisory system for information supply and advice. They request, receive and use various advisory inputs. This article investigates how ministerial advisers utilize policy advice when they formulate policies. Based on a unique survey targeting ministerial cabinet members, it shows that policy advice utilization varies according to the source and its location in the policy advisory system. The sample consists of ministerial advisers from 11 ministerial cabinets in the two Belgian federated entities’ governments of Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Ministerial advisers still predominantly use advice from the civil service, which points to the continued importance of advice provision from internal, in-house sources. However, advice from external actors – such as trade unions, civil society or consulting firms – have been observed to have rather high repercussions on policy formulation activities too. Advisory bodies appear to be very much active in supplying advice, but this same advice does not yield comparatively higher utilization scores. Points for practitioners This study focuses on policy advice utilization by members of ministerial cabinets in Belgium, especially when they formulate policies. It shows that internal, in-house sources remain important advice-providers and their advisory inputs still abundantly feed into the policy work carried out at the level of government. However, this article provides evidence that external sources might also supply advice that directly finds its way to decision-makers working in ministerial cabinets and that have considerable repercussions at that level too. This is the case for advice from trade unions, (organized) civil society or consulting firms, among others. Quite importantly for practitioners, our results suggest that ministerial advisers sometimes prefer controlling advisory exchanges and running separate consultations with one stakeholder at a time, instead of having to deal with collective, internal institutions that represent multiple interests, like advisory bodies. We did not observe striking differences in the degree of utilization between solicited and unsolicited advice, which means that for civil servants or stakeholders, sending policy advice previously unrequested by ministerial cabinets is not necessarily a fruitless strategy to follow.

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Section: A High Utilization Conditioned By Advice Characteristicssupporting

confidence: 89%

Policy advice utilization in Belgian ministerial cabinets: the contingent importance of internal and external sources of advice

Squevin

Aubin

2022

International Review of Administrative Sciences

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“…One of recent debates focuses on their contribution through specialist expertise versus competencies such as 'knowing politics', that is, influencing policy outcome through active relations with senior civil servants. Although this literature distinguishes between professional civil servants taking on advisory and analytical roles (Aubin & Brans, 2020;Kohoutek et al, 2013;Sedlac ˇko & Staro ňov a, 2018) and political advisors close to ministers (Eichbaum & Shaw, 2010), it is preoccupied mainly with staff internal to the government.…”

Section: Experts and Their Influence On Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting experts in their place: Achieving policy impact as an outsider‐academic in civil service reforms in Slovakia

Sedlačko

Staroňová

2022

Int J Soc Welfare

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This paper studies two processes of civil service reform in Slovakia during the period of 2014-2015 in order to reflect on the involvement of an 'outsider-academic' and her strategies to achieve policy impact. The context of such involvement are multi-level processes permeated by political interests and poor on evidence, which favour strategic interests, bargaining and political pressure and contestation (the mode of 'powering') and a mode of legal-based 'puzzling' as opposed to a conceptual, intellectual search for solutions friendly towards outside academics-and achieving only incremental results. We theorise on the success of these strategies (including helping serendipity, throwing ideas to see what sticks, mobilising allies, anchoring a non-binding concept, and finding and developing long-term connections) and sketch analogies and differences between the position of an outsider-academic and a policy entrepreneur. We rely on auto-ethnographic data and documentation of the work of the committees involved and their outputs.

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“…In so doing, different advice content is possible, from long-term ‘cold’ advice to short-term ‘hot’ advice (Craft and Howlett, 2012). At the same time, this conceptualisation captures the complexity of policy advice beyond formal roles, as it acknowledges that policy advice is also offered by several ‘incidental advisors’ who are neither formally called nor generally understood to be policy advisers (Aubin and Brans, 2020; Hoppe and Jeliazkova, 2006; Veselý, 2017: 142).…”

Section: State Of the Art: The Pluralisation Of Advisory Systems And ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Government research institutes in the Italian policy advisory system

Galanti

Lippi

2022

International Review of Administrative Sciences

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In a Napoleonic country such as Italy, ministerial cabinets have traditionally served as central advisors in the politicised policy advisory system (PAS), while evidence-based policy-making has usually been marginal. Nevertheless, recent developments in political systems have pushed for the pluralisation of the Napoleonic PAS toward a stronger demand for scientific and expert advice. Against this backdrop, the role of government research institutes (GRIs) as advisors represents an interesting change that could potentially fuel the development of an evidence-based approach in a period of changing advisory practices. We investigate these developments through a case study concerning 20 Italian GRIs that are engaged as influential advisors or recruited to support implementation through policy work. We obtained evidence through document analysis, in-depth interviews, and a questionnaire administered to the 20 GRIs. The overall picture displays a shift in conceiving policy advice in the political system and opens the door to innovation. Points for practitioners Evidence-based policy making is expanding also in countries with scarce policy capacities. Government research institutes may be asked to perform different policy works, including evidence-based advice and also implementation tasks. The financial autonomy and reputation of the government research institute matter for their advisory role. Policy advice is described as the result of the matching between a contingent political demand and the offer of expert knowledge.

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Policy advisory styles in the francophone Belgian civil service

Cited by 13 publications

References 32 publications

Policy advice utilization in Belgian ministerial cabinets: the contingent importance of internal and external sources of advice

Policy advice utilization in Belgian ministerial cabinets: the contingent importance of internal and external sources of advice

Putting experts in their place: Achieving policy impact as an outsider‐academic in civil service reforms in Slovakia

Government research institutes in the Italian policy advisory system

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